"Are you okay not being a psychologist but having a job in a psychological-related field?"

As mentioned in the CNA article,

"Underemployment occurs when highly-skilled people work in low-paying or low-skilled jobs, as well as when part-time workers prefer to be employed full-time. Internationally, underemployment is hard to define because of the subjectivity involved — such as a worker’s preference and whether qualifications equate to skills and performance."

Does not being a psychologist after achieving your Master's degree being equivalent to being underemployed? That is really a matter of how you look at it, and what you wish to achieve in your career. Having a psychology degree is just a stepping stone to a start of many careers; it is what you wish to become that is the final goal. Keep that in mind!

"humanities and social sciences (5.3 per cent) had higher unemployment rates than the norm."

So how do we resolve this? The answer was also in the CNA article, as said by the MOM spokesperson:

“We need to help individuals equip themselves with the skills needed to take on the quality jobs of today and tomorrow.” “Overall, we have to create a culture where workers are motivated and able to continually acquire relevant skills and experience that will help them advance in their careers,”

We are in a society that wishes to improve all the time (due to our ability to find faults in everything). Hence there is the thought that we need to be well-rounded in different skills; however, are these extra skills the skills we personally want to have? Will these extra skills help us in our ability to be a better psychologist or employee in our line of work?

We may not see the value in these extra skills, but sometimes these are what is required in these new-age jobs. Here are some tips to stay competitive in this degree-filled environment where everyone is competing with you for the same job:

1. Understanding your strengths and weakness (by evaluating your KSAOs)
We need to see what are the current KSAOs we have, and how we can improve ourselves to make sure that we do not only have the minimum KSAOs for the jobs, but overall above and over the minimum criteria. One good way is to find volunteering or internship opportunities so as to improve your experiences, as well as developing your skills and abilities.

2. Make yourself famous! (or at least your name known to prospective employers and supervisors)
This is the POWER of Networking! As mentioned before, having good networking skills and knowing people may lead you to your future employment opportunities, research or postgraduate opportunities, or even knowing people from other related field.

Written by:

SGPsychStud

Blogger for SG Psych Stuff - http://sgpsychstuff.blogspot.sg...

The ONLY informative website about Psychology stuff focused for students in Singapore and Asia...

The focus of the blog is to educate and inform people who are interested in psychology and/or wish to pursue a career in psychology, i.e. to be a psychologist or any other related career, in Singapore and surrounding countries in Southeast Asia.